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Why do we have personalities?

Issue for Week 4

A natural perspective on personality is to think we just have them and they determine our behaviour. So the personality’s in there, and that just shapes the way we do things.

In this video I want to suggest that maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe it requires massive cognitive effort, continual thought and careful pondering about your behaviour past, present, and future to maintain a stable personality.

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The Mind is Flat: The Shocking Shallowness of Human Psychology

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FutureLearn - Learning For Life